Tag: Rushden & Diamonds

Our non-league videos of the week are twety-four hours later than usual this week but, to make it up to you, we’ve brought together the highlights of five matches this week. Our first match is from the Premier Division of the Ryman League and is between the league leaders, Sutton United and Hastings United. Sutton went into the match knowing that a win would hand them the league title with a little to spare, while Hastings went desperate for the points themselves, sitting, as they do, just above the relegation places. Our second match is from the top of the Blue Square South. Braintree Town went into their home match against Havant & Waterlooville knowing that a win would leave them at least four points clear of second-placed Farnborough with just three matches of the season left to play. Havant, meanwhile, needed a win to keep their faint mathematical chance of grabbing a play-off place alive in any way. In the Blue Square North, meanwhile, it is AFC Telford United who are doing the chasing. Alfreton Town were two points clear of Telford with a game in hand and just three more rounds of matches yet to be played. On Saturday, they were away to Hinckley United, who are just about safe from relegation but would probably appreciate one more win, just to be absolutely certain. We’re going to...

With the AGM Cup looking set to decide the non-league pyramid’s final placings once again, Jenni Silver looks at some of this year’s possible contenders. It should be the most exciting time of the season, promotions, play-offs and relegation dog-fights, the glorious month which ends the football season. But forgive me for not really feeling it this year. Somehow I know the Blue Square North table after the last game has been played won’t really tell the true story of the winners and losers of the league. The same can be said of its sister league in the south and the BSP too, along with several of the feeder leagues. As with the past few seasons the real winners will come in the AGM Cup, the clubs who are lucky enough to be handed a reprieve at the expense of another club with no ground grading/ financial woe/ big tax bill (delete as applicable.) Give it a few years and we will effectively be back in the days when clubs were voted in and out of leagues and relegations didn’t count if you had the right connections. I’m not being dramatic here, last year no one was relegated out of the BSN or into it from the BSP thanks to Salisbury and Northwich being booted down the pyramid (Grays Athletic, Farsley Celtic and Chester City had already dropped out...

The news of a death always comes as something of a shock, but the news of a death of a footballer usually seems to be more shocking than most. We already know that these are young men living lives that us mere supporters would have given almost anything to have had the chance to do and that they are in the peak of their physical condition. No matter how many times one is reported, it always manages to send a chill down the spine, and so it is with the sad, sad news of the passing of the Rushden & Diamonds goalkeeper Dale Roberts, who has died at the age of twenty-four. Dale Roberts was a product of the youth system at Nottingham Forest, and spent time on loan at Eastwood Town and Alfreton Town before arriving at Nene Park on a longer loan deal. He was later recalled by Nottingham Forest at the end of the 2007/08 season as cover, but eventually signed a permanent contract with Rushden & Diamonds in January of 2009. He made just over 100 appearances for the Northamptonshire club and, in addition to this, played in all of the England C team’s matches last season and was voted the England C Player Of The Year. It is no consolation at this time, but in time those who knew him will doubtlessly come to...

“This was not a football match”, wrote The Non-League Paper’s Chris Dunlavy this morning, “this was a snuff movie”, and never have truer words been spoken. Weymouth Football Club, battered and broken, were forced to field a youth team for their home BSP match against Rushden & Diamonds yesterday, and it was a foregone conclusion that they would lose this match. There is an irony, however, which means that the entire day wasn’t a complete dead loss. The result shone out from all others in the Saturday evening round-ups, and since yesterday evening messages of goodwill have been flooding into the club. It remains uncertain whether they will be able to complete the season and the vultures continue to circle overhead with their eyes fixed firmly on their ground. However, the pride shown by everybody at the club yesterday afternoon hints – just a glimmer of a hint, but a hint nevertheless – at a brighter future for them. How did this come to pass, then? Weymouth’s players put in a fourteen notice to the club the week before last, having not been paid yet this year. However, this notice doesn’t expire until next Tuesday. One might have expected the players to have put in one final performance, but the club had reportedly allowed stopped paying for the players’ insurance, so the youth team had to turn out instead....